WEISS: Why the Syrian ceasefire failed
On Thursday, Sept. 22, hopes of renewing the U.S.-Russia brokered ceasefire agreement in Syria were erased as Russian and Syrian incendiary bombs devastated swaths of rebel-held eastern Aleppo. Syria’s most populous city is now under the most intense bombing since the beginning of its civil war, with the Assad regime employing recently acquired bunker buster bombs that turn concrete buildings into craters. The ceasefire seems to have provided the lull the Assad regime needed to gather its forces for a renewed push. With Samantha Power, the American ambassador to the UN, condemning Russian and Syrian “barbarism” on Sunday at a special meeting of the UN Security Council, it is important for the international community to understand why the ceasefire agreement was almost bound to fail from the start, and where we might go from here.